Joy Deja King: Author as Energetic Self-Marketer

If I believed in the “xxx is my spirit animal” meme, I’d make mine Joy Deja King. She is an inspiration to self-published writers, embracing the virtues of hard work, high energy, creative decision-making, and savvy marketing.

My wife and I encountered one of her books at the Dauphin County library’s local authors day I had written about last week. We had ducked into an aisle to discuss our book purchases when my eye was caught by a book on the shelf.

Can’t imagine what caught my eye.

It’s a romance novel for black women by Joy Deja King. What really caught our attention was inside the covers. On the inside front, all her book covers.

At the back, four more book covers, plus an order form.

As a fan of good book design, I appreciated her use of the snake bracelet at the head of each chapter.

A look at her work online revealed that she poses as the heroine on her covers. Fortunately, she has the right look, with the help of makeup and other beauty aids. She shows you how she did it in her YouTube video.

She’s also unafraid of asking you to pay her for her books. I’ve seen plenty of authors concerned about the price they set for their books. This is a common feeling among many freelancers. It could be that they don’t want to risk losing customers, or appear to be “greedy,” so they set their prices too low. Thriller writer Russell Blake has no problem charging $5.99 for a new thriller and $4.99 for his older books.

Joy Deja King looks at Blake’s prices and says, “Hold my Cristal.” She asks $9.99 for most of her ebooks, although her Bitch series is priced at $4.99. And, no, they aren’t available at Kindle Unlimited.

She and Harlan Ellison would get along very well on this point: Pay the writer.

All people are not equal. There are individuals who have so much energy, who push out so many waves, that they can change the world. They can energize everyone they come in contact with. Joy Deja King is one of those people.